Free Trials

Overview

You can offer a free trial period by setting the trial_end field when creating a subscription. The trial_end must be a date in the future and determines when the first payment will be collected.

How trials work

When a subscription is created with a trial_end:

The subscription is activated immediately (assuming payment methods are provided).
No payment is attempted until the trial_end date is reached.
The first bill is created with a due date matching the trial_end value.
The first charge after the trial automatically carries a "-Trial" suffix on the payment reference. Renewals after that use the plain reference.
Once the trial period ends, billing continues at the normal interval defined in cycle_details.

Creating a subscription with a trial

Include the trial_end field in your /subscriptions request. The value must be a future date in ISO 8601 format.

/subscriptions request with trial:

{
  "customer": {
    "customer_id": "c3e06b6f-bb52-4b2c-81a3-899860652240"
  },
  "product": {
    "name": "Gold Plan",
    "description": "Monthly gold membership"
  },
  "price": {
    "usage_type": "fixed",
    "amount": 19.99,
    "currency": "GBP",
    "cycle_details": {
      "interval": "month",
      "interval_count": 1,
      "limit": 12
    }
  },
  "payment_methods": [
    {
      "type": "card",
      "payment_method_id": "00cfdbdc-5e81-4ce2-adc1-14920120618f",
      "is_primary": true
    }
  ],
  "trial_end": "2025-12-01T09:00:00Z"
}

In this example, the subscription is created as trialing and the first payment will not be attempted until 1st December 2025. When the trial ends and the first payment is collected, the subscription transitions to active and billing continues monthly as defined in cycle_details.

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Note
Payment methods are still required to start a trial. If the subscription is created without payment methods, it will be incomplete and must be activated via the /subscriptions/{subscription_id}/activate endpoint before the trial begins.

Free trial compliance and best practice (UK)

Free trials with stored payment methods are subject to Visa and Mastercard scheme rules. This section outlines what you're required to do as a merchant. Acquired handles payment processing and tokenisation; customer communications and cancellation flows are your responsibility.

Card collection: zero-value authorisation

When collecting a payment method at trial sign-up, Acquired performs a zero-value authorisation by default. This verifies the card and tokenises it without charging the customer, and satisfies SCA requirements for subsequent merchant-initiated payments. See the Components Integration guide for more details.

Scheme obligations

Requirement	Visa	Mastercard
Display full subscription terms at point of card entry	—	✅ Required
Send confirmation email at enrolment	—	✅ Required
Send reminder before trial ends (7+ day trials)	✅ Min. 7 days before	✅ Required
Reminder for billing less frequent than every 180 days	—	✅ 7–30 days before
Post-trial billing descriptor references trial (handled automatically by Acquired)	✅ Required	—
Online cancellation available regardless of sign-up channel	✅ Required	✅ Required
Cancellation confirmation sent within 7 days	—	✅ Required
Direct cancellation link (not a general support page)	—	✅ Required

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Note: Post-trail billing descriptor reference
Suffix added to the payment reference is the literal "-Trial".
Given the total reference is capped at 18 characters; when the suffix is applied the reference is truncated to 12 chars first (e.g. Golden Gold Plan → Golden Gold -Trial).
It applies to exactly one bill — the first bill after the trial.
It does not apply to renewals, retries, or prepaid first bills.